OUR LADY OF THE MIRACLES OF CAACUPÉ PARAGUAY

In Paraguay, natural beauties abound: but among that multitude of gifts that Providence sowed in its kindness towards us, Caacupé, the village of miracles surrounded by hills, streams and a prodigious vegetation, must stand out.Caacupé is like an emerald case that keeps a precious jewel: the Virgin of Miracles, to which pilgrims from all over the republic never cease to arrive, in search of comfort and cures for their ailments of the spirit and body, or to pay their debt for one or another recovered health. In buses, cars, carts, on horseback and on foot, all Paraguayans have gone at least once in our lives to visit our Virgencita de Caacupé in search of comfort or to thank her for her divine goods.

The story tells us that it was the year 1600..... when one morning a group of Mbayaes Indians chased a Guarani with the intention of killing him, perhaps because he belonged to another dominant tribe in the area, or perhaps because the Guarani Indian had converted to Christianity and was a parishioner of the Franciscans, whom the Mbayaes feared as much as the devil.

Completely cornered as he was and desperate for the deadly fate that awaited him, the converted Indian hid behind a large tree that seemed protective. Crouching and trembling, he was suddenly enlightened by the memory of the Immaculate Conception, who was the Virgin of his predilection. Between supplications and sighs, between fear and hopes, he promised the Queen of Heaven that if she would free him from his unjust and fierce enemies, she would make him an image of the same wood of that tree.

Miraculously, the Mbayaes did not find it in that mountain and at nightfall they were forced to return to their tolderias. The little Guarani Indian was then free ...... and lived only to fulfill his promise.

Waiting a prudential time, the Guarani returned to the protective tree, already with his primitive tools. He took from the trunk the wood necessary for his purpose, put it to dry, and patiently, with all the art of his hands and the fervor of his soul, he began to sculpt two statues of the Virgin: one, larger, destined for the Church of Tobatí, near the place, and another, smaller, for his private devotion.

This smaller image is the Virgin of Miracles that is venerated in the city of Caacupé; a smaller image that was to become the larger one, due to the abundance of her gifts and her faithful. According to the opinion of critics of wooden art, the image is a brilliant artistic creation of extraterrestrial beauty.History has not collected data of the major image, which is supposed to have been plundered by the savage Mbayaes. Neither was it known more of that little Guarani and Christian Indian, but although we never know to whom the faith and the church owe this work of divine inspiration, our faith tells us that he has been sharing with our Heavenly Mother ..... and who could deny that he was not interceding today for all of us who are gathered here today offering this tribute.